When Gibson died on Monday, at age 49, those closest to the poet consoled mourning fans by sharing some of Gibson’s last words: “I fucking loved my life.” Accepting their illness and their mortality had transformed Gibson. “You tap into the brevity of something,” they’d told Freethink, “and all of a sudden everything becomes more special.”

On Monday, the death of queer activist and Colorado's Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson was announced on social media by their fiancée.

"Though Andrea desperately wished to have lived a longer life, they could not have possibly lived a fuller one," Gibson's family said.